Sunday, September 21, 2008

The Post Mortem

Lane Kiffin has done a bunch of shady things to get fired from the Raiders, but he really crossed a line when he had the Raiders purposely roll over on Sunday afternoon in Buffalo. And really, you almost hope that Kiffin was purposely trying to throw away the game, instead of just being that incompetent when it comes to managing a football game.

Seriously, only three passes in the second half? That hardly seems possible, unless it's the 1930s. Al Davis is old school, but that's pushing it. But why would the Raiders want to throw the ball? Especially when one of JaMarcus Russell's three passes was an 84-yard touchdown pass to Johnnie Lee Higgins.

Yeah, why not keep running it with a back on a gimpy foot? Not that we're arguing.

How bad has it become in Oakland? DeAngelo Hall longs for the day when his quarterback was involved in a dog-fighting ring and his coach wanted to go back to college.

The good news is that Kiffin does want to return to college (but probably should go back to high school where he belongs). And who knows, Davis might have already started the wheels in motion to let him return.

As of right now, though, Kiffin is the coach.

WHO IS THE NFL'S WORST TEAM?If the St. Louis FC isn't the worst team in the NFL, they at least reside in the same state. The defense, long admires of the ineptitude of the offensive line, allowed the Seahawks to run wild on Sunday, to the tune of 245 yards. St. Louis has lost 16 of its previous 19 games, a Raiders-like level of ineptitude.

There was some good news on the offensive side of the ball. Marc Bulger was only sacked once. But he's become so skittish in the backfield, he often looks like a second baseman turning two when he takes a snap from the shotgun.

You sometimes wonder how a franchise could get so bad, then you look at the ownership. Who knew that the murdering showcorpse is a much better alternative.

Did you ever notice that Adrian Peterson's State Farm commercial has the Vikings taking the field at the LA Coliseum? Just saying.

Having Darren McFadden on the fantasy team just isn't happening. Having even the slightest inclination to root for the Raiders makes you feel like taking a shower. Or at least lowering your car. And when Russell poaches a touchdown, that's the worst of both worlds. Thankfully, Kiffin made sure that was at least some satisfaction.

One of these days, the predictions in The Weak Ender will match the GA picks. That New England pick was easy to see.

How did the Patriots fall for the same play twice? Ronnie Brown took a direct snap, faked a reverse and scampered into the end zone twice. Thought the Patriots only excelled against plays they have seen before.

The Patriots fans must be stunned that their team is playing so poorly. Especially since most fans didn't start watching games until 2001. Well, the 2001 playoffs following the Tuck Rule game.

Maybe Joey Porter wasn't so out of line by saying that Matt Cassel wasn't Tom Brady. Seriously, why were people upset by those remarks? And why does the Post Mortem suddenly look like a Sports Dork column?

Turns out Cassel isn't even the same caliber as Ronnie Brown, who just fired a touchdown pass after taking a direct snap. Unbelievable. One of the strangest sequences in the NFL. Nice way to have your regular season win streak snapped.

NFL Network's use of "Everyday is Like Sunday" is kind of dumb, seeing that they don't use the Morrissey version.

Tony Romo continues to rack up the wins in September. He seems like he would have been a perfect fit in the 1990s Bills teams. Though, in a world where Gomer and the Messiah are you last two Super Bowl MVPs, you never want to say never. But the Cowboys don't have the defense that the Colts and Giants had.

If you put 11 guys on Brandon Marshall, Jay Cutler would still try to force the ball to him.

The NFL is still having teams wear the G.U. on their helmets. Makes sense seeing that Gene Upshaw gave up his life to go defend this country.

COLLEGE NEWSLadies and gentlemen, pull up a chair because you are about to witness Internet history. The Pac-10 is down this year. That's not a surprise. But in a world where a college football fan would never admit to such things, this is huge. Honestly, there are still Big Ten fans who think that USC couldn't hang in its conference. The SEC fans? They are still fighting the Civil War. Do you think they would ever admit when their conference was down?

The Pac-10 is down this year, and that's cool. Mainly because we are getting to see some breakthroughs from the Mountain West and WAC. Both conferences, of course, have more members in the Top 25 than the Pac-10. Texas Christian joins BYU and Utah from the Mountain West. Boise State and Fresno State represent the WAC. This is going to be a great season.

A friend pointed out that USC is currently like UNLV basketball in the 1980s ... one great team in an average conference.

Prediction: BYU is going to worm their way to the No. 2 spot in the polls by the time they play Utah. But they will end up losing to the Utes. However, a USC vs. BYU matchup would probably be the most entertaining matchup of the year. BYU would probably have enough firepower to at least stay with USC. No other team currently in the Top 10 could probably stay close.

AND FINALLYYankee Stadium was finally put to rest on Sunday night. The flyover by the Thurman Munson family was especially touching. But frankly, were we supposed to care? The tradition of Yankee Stadium was taken out during the remodel in the 1970s.

The Yankees were given a proper marble washing during the All-Star game. Did they have to devote an entire Sunday for the sendoff? As a few buddies pointed out, what the hell is going to happen when they finally tear down Fenway Park? Andrew Jackson, err, Peter Gammons would probably commit suicide and be buried in the ashes.

9 comments:

The Pac is bad THIS year, but I would disagree that USC in the 2000s is comparable to UNLV in the Big West. The Pac has been strong pretty consistently up until this season, while the Big West was a certifiable mid-major. It was pretty rare for the BW to get even two teams into the Dance.

I could be wrong, but I think it was 3 times on that Ronnie Brown direct snap thing.

Nice dig on the GU.

They won't tear down Fenway any time soon. I'm told that the locale is much too convenient and it would cause an uproar. Personally, those miserable bastards must enjoy that decrepit monstrosity. But at least they don't have the temerity to call their dump a "cathedral." Check again if the Red Sox run off 4 or 5 more titles in the next 10 years.

I suppose that the difference between USC and UNLV could be that, even in a bad basketball conference, you could still run off and play 10 quality non-conference games...not that UNLV did. I think USC gets two or three chances (I could be wrong, I don't follow), which turn out to be Ohio State and Notre Dame.

I don't see why they can't grab the best teams and lump them into 2 or 3 super conferences, have them fight it out, then have a cream of the crop knockout tournament. Until then, college rugby for fairies will remain a sham.

Good call on 1990, that was a good year for Western mid-majors. UNLV-LMU combining for about 250 points between them; I imagine had Hank Gathers not died LMU - UNLV might have been the National championship game: they certainly would have put up more of a fight than Duke.

Anyway, 1990 for the Big West was more of an aberration than the norm, right? Whereas it's rare for the Pac-10 to be this brutal. I'm a shill for the Pac though so maybe I've overestimated the conference in recent seasons.

Haha, hopefully I'm not Simmonsian here. The Pac-10 doesn't have a single team outside of USC that should finish in the Top 25. Whichever team gets to the Holiday Bowl is going to get pasted, and that trickles on down. The Las Vegas Bowl is likely to be the most lopsided game this year, esp. if Utah or BYU doesn't get a BCS berth.

The Autumn Wind is a Hater!

The Hater Nation is back where it belongs. Turns out, we were too lazy to sellout. So unless somebody wants to give us $100K per year to tell McKenzie Phillips' jokes, we are probably going to be found here for a while.

Last and Ten Obvious Admissions We Would Like to See

10.Peter King admits it ... he really wants to sex up Brett Favre. And he wants to give Tom Brady a coffee enema.

9. Cowboys owner Jerry Jones admits that his face is as real as Joan Rivers' face.